InformationWeek

Carrington acknowledges that EAI is a major part of Ingersoll-Rand's consolidation project cost but declined to give specifics. Mann and other analysts say the cost of an EAI project the size of Ingersoll-Rand's can be "in the magnitude of $10 million."

To ensure a successful implementation, some level of Oracle training will be offered to about 28,000 people within the company, although many will receive limited training. For example, factory workers might receive training only in the use of the self-service HR kiosks. For the company's 1,000 accountants and HR specialists, training will be more thorough. "Training our accountants to use a different system is a major undertaking," says Janson. "For them, the most important training is in new processes. The Oracle applications will require them to learn new ways to do things."

To train these key personnel, the company is identifying power users of the old systems and giving them classroom training based on Oracle Product Tutor training material and other documentation. These power users, with support from a Web-based training vendor still to be selected, will in turn train others in their business units who need to use the ERP applications.

Mann says many older manufacturing companies and other businesses have a history similar to Ingersoll-Rand's, in which each division or facility runs autonomously, often relying on systems up to 30 years old that don't communicate with newer systems-or each other. But in today's economy, such organizations find they must centralize their critical business functions. "Ingersoll-Rand is a wonderful example of that," he says. "This is a case where you have a lot of applications in a very large number of facilities that have to be integrated. You're not just installing ERP applications, you're establishing a different way of communication throughout the company. What does the corporation need? What are they going to leave to the different units?"

Kimberly Knickle, a senior analyst at AMR Research, says many companies that implement ERP solutions encounter the same connectivity problems as Ingersoll-Rand. "Companies find that they've committed large amounts of financial and time resources to an ERP product and all its modules," Knickle says, "but these companies find that ERP couldn't get rid of the old stuff. It would support zillions of business processes. But it couldn't eliminate all the systems in place in the company. Or there were required business processes that went outside of the capabilities of the ERP product."

That's where EAI earns its keep, she says. "If you integrate one or two applications, it may not become apparent right away. But when you integrate five or six with legacy applications, real, hard dollars can be made, and the dollars really add up."